Samsung began blocking gray TVs: what to do about it

In recent days, more and more complaints have begun to be received from users that Samsung has begun to block

smart features on their TVs.

What happened

In fact, the TV turns into a regular TVmonitor: you can watch video from a flash drive on it, but the Smart-TV functions are blocked. A message appears on the screen: “This TV is not fully functional in this region.”


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Similar cases are reported by users from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Moldova.

As it turns out, this is part of Samsung's new policyto combat “gray” TVs, that is, devices imported from other countries. For example, in Ukraine they often buy equipment from Poland - it’s cheaper.

“Such information on TV screens indicatesthe fact that this TV was manufactured for another region and may not meet the technical requirements of the region where it is actually located. This excludes the manufacturer’s ability to guarantee the availability of all functions in the user’s country of residence (actual use of the device). Information that the availability of functions depends on the region of delivery is indicated in the user manual. We recommend purchasing products only from official retailers in the region in order to be able to enjoy all the functions of the product and also support from the manufacturer,” said Samsung support.

The Ukrainian division of the company reports:“TVs imported to Ukraine by Samsung Electronics Ukraine Company LLC are designed for distribution on the territory of Ukraine, and therefore, such models were localized by the manufacturer in accordance with the requirements of current technical standards and the specifics of providing certain services within the country. Such TVs comply with the requirements of technical regulations and national standards. You can recognize the official models with the letters ** UA in the model code and the Ukrainian letters on the sticker on the back of the TV.

TVs designed for other countriesand imported into Ukraine by other persons may not operate correctly on the territory of Ukraine as a result of improper settings, or such factory settings that should be used in other countries. For questions regarding the operation of televisions manufactured for delivery and sale in countries other than Ukraine, we advise you to contact directly the selling company where such a device was purchased.

If the TV has the letters UA in the model code and Smart TV does not work in it, please contact the hotline 0800502000"

What to do

There is no point in turning to Samsung for help,Therefore, users independently found a way out of this situation. One way is to use a VPN with the IP address of the country in which the TV was originally intended for sale.

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